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Show 204 UNCLE TO.i\1 78 CABIN: Oll, that, they can't do no more. I'm clar, I'm set! I know tho Lord 'll help me, and bring me through." Tho woman diU not answer; she sat with her black eyes intently fixed on the floor. ".May be it's the way," she murmured to herself; "but those that have given up, there's no hope for thcm!-nonc! 'Vc Jive in filth, and grow loathsome, till we loa,the ourselves! And we long to die, and we don't dare to kill ourselves!No hope! no hope 1 no hope!- this girl now,-just as ol<l as I was! "You sec me now," she said, speaking to Tom very rapidly; "sec what I am! 'Yell, I was brought up in luxury; the first I remember is, playing about, when I was n. child, in splendid parlors;- when I was kept dressed up like n doll, and company and visitors used to praise mo. There was a garden opening from the saloon windows i and there I used to phy hide-and-go-seck, under the orange-trees, with my brothers and sisters. I went to a. convent, and there I learned music, French and embroidery, and what not; and when I was fourteen, I carne out to my father's funeral. IIo died very suddenly, and when the property carne to be settled, they found that there was scarcely enough to cover the debts; and when the creditors took an inventory of the property, I was set down in it. :My mother was n slave woman, and my ft~ther had always meant to set me free; but he had not done it, and so I was set down in the list. I'd always known who I was, but never thought much about it. Nobody ever expects thn.t a strong, healthy man is a. going to die. My father was a well man only four hours before he died·- it was one of the first cholera cases in New Orle~ms. ~rhc ~lay after the funeral, my father's wife took her' children, and went up to her father's plantation. I thought they I.IFE Al\IONO THE LOWJ.Y. 205 treated me strangely, but didn't know. ~rhcre was a young bwyer who they left to settle the business; and be came every day, nnd was about the house, and spoke very politely to me. He brought with him, one day, a young man, whom I thought the handsomest I l~ad ever seen. I shall ne\'cr forget that erening. I walked with l1im in the garden. I was lonesome and full of sorrow, and he wns so kind and gentle to me; and he told me that he had seen me before I went to the conYent, nnd that l10 had loved me n great while, and that he would be my friend and protector;-ln short, though he didn't tell me, he had paid two thousand <.lollars for me, and I was his property,-I became his willingly, for I loved him. Loved I" said the woman, stopping. "0, how I did love that man ! llow I love him now,- and always shall, while I breathe! lie was so beautiful, so high, so noble ! lie put me into a beautiful house, with servants, horses, and carriages, aml furniture, and dresses. Everything that money could buy, he gave me; but I didn' t set any value on all that,- I only cared for him. I loved him better than my God and my own soul; and, if I tried, I couldn' t do any other way fl·om what he wanted me to. "I wanted only one thing- I did want him to 11utrry me. I thought, if he loved me as he said he did, and if I was what he seemed to think I was, he would be w.illing to marry me and set me free. But he convinced me that it would be impossible; and be told me that, if we were only faitliful to each other, it was marriage before God. If that is true, wasn't I that man's wife? 1Vns n' t I faithful? For seven years, cl.id n't I stully every look and motion, and only Jive and breathe to please him? lie had the yellow fever, and for twenty days and nights I watched with him. I alone,- and gave him all his medicine, aml did cverythin~ for him; and VOL. II. J8 |